In a dystopian future where the United States, crippled by climate change, have split into fracturing states that vie for resources like oil, a new form of Western outlaws emerges. The narrator, Gus March, opens with an infamous tape of the famous gasoline outlaw Lightning Jack’s incendiary death in a failed attempt to hijack a truck carrying oil. 

He then recounts his life with the charismatic Lightning Jack, who came into the spotlight as a venerated young racecar driver, with Gus as a crucial member of his pit crew. Once the oil scarcity hit and companies like NASCAR folded however, the suddenly unemployed crew dissolved.

Years later, amid political instability between a new government and rebel states, Lightning Jack convinces his old crew to join his life of crime, hitting up tankers carrying oil on a highway and selling the oil on the black market.

In between jobs, the crew stays in Jack’s girlfriend’s barn. Gus develops feelings for an old pit crew friend, Lola, and after obtaining Jack’s blessing, the pair start dating. 

However, the violence of their jobs and the fear of arrest takes a toll on the crew. Lola begins an affair with Jack. Gus finds out and in a drunken stupor, murders Jack in his sleep. He leaves the barn immediately afterwards and believes that by morning, the Feds had raided the place, killing every crew member left as they took their last stand. The infamous tape of Lightning Jack's death was staged after all. 

Now an old man nearing death, Gus expresses regret for his betrayal and his love for Lola and Jack.